$3,000 For One Cigar?

Going into a B&M cigar shop always gives me a little shock when I look at the price tags. I know I have a warped view on cigar prices from working for a discount online mail order

Churchill Smoking at Potsdam, July 1945

company, but still, seeing a $15+ tag on a stick that goes for $8 or less from us always makes me shake my head. If seeing that price discrepancy is shocking for me, I was absolutely floored to see how much a cigar sold for yesterday – someone with way too much money on their hands spent $3,111.00 for ONE single cigar!

I suppose I should clarify a little, the cigar was part of an auction of items owned by Winston Churchill; apparently the guy actually owned a cigar that he didn’t end up smoking. The fact that a cigar was included in the lot at all was incredible to me. I immediately formed a mental picture of an auctioneer closing out the sale of a handwritten legendary speech or first draft of a Nobel-prize winning manuscript, and then saying “next item up for bid, one cigar”. Of course it simply serves as further proof that Churchill is the most iconic cigar smoker ever, so much so that one of his smokes is actually worthy of that kind of extraordinary treatment.

Next I ponder a host of questions – Was it properly stored? What condition is it in? Could the extreme aging combined with the original owner make this the best cigar ever? Would the new owner actually consider smoking it at some point? I guess those are all questions with no answers, and likely the thing is drier than the desert and would crumble to dust if someone tried to cut it. Maybe the new owner will drop into our blog and check out our post on reviving a dried out stogie.

Whatever he plans to do with the smoke, I hope he gets his money’s worth. The cigar was appraised before the auction and initially was estimated to sell for $1,500-$2,200. He clearly wanted it badly, and I hope he is happy today and not feeling any buyer’s remorse. I thought the Winston Churchill cigars by Davidoff were expensive, but this stick makes those look like a bargain. As for me, I think I’ll stick to cigars that have a 2-digit price tag, but I will close by saying I have an immense amount of respect for anyone who loves cigars (or Winston Churchill) enough to lay out that kind of dough for the most epic pre-embargo Cuban ever sold.